HIT hard and challenge your body

Tuesday

Aug 19, 2014 at 2:00 AM

High intensity training (HIT) is one of the best training methods to constantly challenge your body. Research shows that HIT training preserves muscle while burning fat. There's a post work-out benefit, too: for more than 24 hours, your body's metabolism increases which means that, even after you worked out, you continue to burn calories.

High intensity training (HIT) is one of the best training methods to constantly challenge your body. Research shows that HIT training preserves muscle while burning fat. There's a post work-out benefit, too: for more than 24 hours, your body's metabolism increases which means that, even after you worked out, you continue to burn calories.

Here's how to get started:

1. Pick a time period to work, perhaps ten to 15 minutes.

2. Chose an upper-body exercise; for example, an overhead press with dumbbells. Use a weight that you can press comfortably 10 times. Then select a lower-body exercise, like lunges, and hold your dumbbells at your side. Repeat 10 times. Alternate between the two exercises and rest as needed.

Some other combinations you can try:

Burpees and jumping jacks. Burpees are exercises that combine a squat with a push-up. Pair them together, and you have an overall strength builder guaranteed to work you hard. Jumping jacks — the same exercise you remember from grade school, jumping and reaching with your arms overhead, your core tight and then landing with your feet out, then returning to mid-line — will raise your heart rate in no time. Pull-ups and dips. Pull-ups require a bar of some sort or even the monkey bars at your local playground. Grab a bar with a grip slightly wider than shoulder width, with your hands facing away from you. Hang all the way down. Pull yourself up until your chin is above the bar. Pause, then try to lower yourself all the way back down. Try it again and try isolating your back and biceps (while trying not to swing). It's more difficult than you think.

For dips, position your hands shoulder-width apart on a stable bench or chair. Slide your butt off the front of the bench with your legs extended out in front of you. Straighten your arms, keeping a little bend in your elbows to keep tension on your triceps and off your elbow joints. Slowly bend your elbows to lower your body toward the floor until your elbows are at about a 90-degree angle. Be sure to keep your back close to the bench. Once you reach the bottom of the movement, press down into the bench to straighten your elbows, returning to the starting position. This completes one repetition.

You can use the HIT training method at your gym on equipment designed for a cardio workout, like a treadmill or elliptical machine. Choose your equipment and work hard for 30 to 45 seconds, then rest as needed. Or go outdoors and sprint, not jog. Run for 30 seconds then walk and recover.

A few other things to remember before you run out to burn those calories:

1. Warm-up for ten minutes to prepare your body for training.

2. Prepare to work hard. On a scale of one to ten, you should be working at eight out of ten.

3. Watch your technique so you don't injure yourself.

4. When you're done, you should feel like you can't do another set.

5. When you're done you need to bring your body back to a calm state. Go for a walk, take deep breaths, and so some stretching.

And, with any training program, make sure you're in good health before you start and keep your diet in check.

Matt Lawrence is an athletic performance specialist and owner of Ironman Fitness in Exeter. E-mail questions to ironmanfitness88@gmail.com or visit ironmanfitness88.com.

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